Application of the Harmony Search Optimization in Irrigation

Abstract

In its first part this chapter briefly reviews applications of the Harmony Search (HS) optimization method in the irrigation industry. As will be seen, HS can be applied in similar problem areas as other heuristics. Therefore, other heuristic method applications in the irrigation industry are mentioned in this part of the chapter to encourage the use of HS instead, because of its already-reported effectiveness while handling various problems. The remainder of the chapter deals with one possible application of HS – the calibration of a simulation model of the hydraulic part of an irrigation system. This calibrated simulation model can be used in the design, reconstruction, enlargement or mainte nance of pressurized irrigation systems. The calibration of the water distribution model consists of a comparison of predicted pres sures and flows with those observed under known operating conditions (i.e., pump operation, tank levels, pressure-reducing valve settings), and an adjustment of the input data for the model to improve the agreement between the observed and predicted values. In practice, given a set or sets of measured state variables, engineers apply trial and error techniques, using their judgment to vary the parameters and accomplish this task. Trial and error techniques are tedious and do not always guarantee reasonable results. This chapter introduces a methodology for determining calibrated parameters automatically through the exploitation of the HS optimization method.